Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: traceyepeach on June 08, 2017, 09:48:25 AM
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Hi all im new this is my first post :).
right I have an established small 18 gallon tank, very small comm fish in there 2 mountain minnows, a growing group of endlers which im just about to hopefully restrict with 2 german blue rams I don't have yet and 1 clown loach all doing well. what I want is an algae eater, preferably a catfish but with my small 18 gallon tank what is best advice, I don't really mind but I do need some kind of algae eater.
Thanks in advance :)
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Hi, welcome to the forum :wave:
To be honest, there are very few algae eating fish suitable for that sized tank. Assuming you mean American gallons (the one most commonly used in fish keeping) that converts to 68 litres.
You could just about fit a shoal of otocinclus, but you would need at least 6 of them, and long term your tank might not be able to grow enough algae for a shoal.
By far the best algae eaters for small tanks are nerite snails. I know some people find just the thoughts of snails to be horrible, but they really are the best. They also have the advantage that they can't breed in fresh water so they don't overrun a tank. Well, they do lay eggs like sesame seeds but they don't hatch.
If you don't want snails, shrimps are the second best option. There are several shrimp species that would be suitable - cherry shrimps in various colours (though red is the hardiest), amano shrimps, ghost/glass/grass shrimp (different names, same species).
However, no algae eating creature will eat all types of algae. The best way to approach an algae problem is to work out why it's there, and remove that issue.
While I'm here, can I point out a couple of potential problems.
White cloud mountain minnows are shoaling fish, you need at least 6 of them.
Clown loaches (http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus) are also shoaling fish and they grow BIG. Have a look at the photos in that link. You need a tank at least 180 cm (6 feet) x 60 cm (2 feet) for clown loaches. I would rehome this fish before it gets stunted. It really does need to be in a group.
One further comment.
Endlers like hard water, rams like soft water; WCMM like cool water, rams like warmer water. I'm afraid that rams are not really compatible with your current fish.
Do you know if you have hard or soft water? You can usually find that information on your water company's website. This info will help you choose an endler-controlling fish suitable to your water.
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Hi there and welcome to the forum. :wave:
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took your advice, took the clown loach into the shop and bought some of those little catfish also bought some black widow tetras instead of the blue rams to keep the endless down and topped up the cloud minows to 6. thanks for the advice, saved me from digging a bigger whole with my aquarium.
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Keep an eye on the otos. The way they are caught and treated during transit from the river to the shop means a lot of them die. You could lose one or two due to their treatment before you bought them.
Since you've just added a lot of fish in one go, monitor your ammonia and nitrite daily for a couple of weeks. If you find either or both above zero, you'll need to do water changes to get the readings down to zero.